In front of a packed house at Sokol Arena and a national television audience on Fox Sports 1, Creighton marked the tip-off of the 2013-2014 basketball season with the fourth annual “Bluejay Madness” event Friday night.
Delayed by a couple of weeks from past years thanks to Fox’s “Big East Tipoff Party”, which showcased all ten of the league’s programs, the event had a bit of a different feel — especially given the new NCAA rule that allowed practice to begin in late September. The teams had almost a full month of practice under their belt rather than one day in previous years, and it showed.
After the customary introductions of each men’s and women’s player, the men’s team scrimmaged with the “White” team — consisting mostly of the players expected to be starters — beating the “Blue” team 32-28. Suiting up for the White team were Doug McDermott, Grant Gibbs, Austin Chatman, Will Artino and Jahenns Manigat, while the Blue team starters were Ethan Wragge, Devin Brooks, James Milliken, Darian Harris, and Geoffrey Groselle.
McDermott gave the standing-room-only crowd a show, scoring on a layup, an alley-oop dunk and two three-pointers in the scrimmage’s first minutes as the “White” team jumped ahead 15-5. Then a 10-4 run for the Blue side cut the lead to 21-15, a stretch that featured a three from Ethan Wragge and a dunk from Zach Hanson.
Later in the 15-minute scrimmage, Will Artino checked in off the bench for the White team and scored on back-to-back buckets to give them a 30-21 lead. Brooks then went on a personal 5-0 run, first by draining a long jumper and then with a drive to the rim for a layup and a free throw to cut the lead to 30-26. They’d get no closer, and fell 32-28.
Of the five new players who saw action, here’s some quick thoughts on how they looked:
James Milliken showed off the ability to create his own shot, and to knock down open looks. It’s impossible to gauge defense in scrimmages like this, so while that will ultimately go a long way toward determining how many minutes he gets in a crowded lineup, the only thing we really have to base a playing-time prediction on is his offensive ability. On Friday night, he showed good athleticism in the scrimmage and tremendous shooting in the three-point contest; if that carries over to games, my guess is he’ll be a big part of the rotation early in the season.
Devin Brooks comes in with a reputation as a flashy, lightning-quick guard that can get to the rim, but it was the other skills he showed Friday that could make him a player that gets significant minutes. He crashed the boards with aggression — he’s fearless amongst the trees — and his court vision was much better than I expected. Combined with the skills he showed in summer league — a super-quick first step and a knack for shaking defenders — Brooks also never appeared to be playing out of control (think Andre Yates or Cavel Witter, who tended to dribble or shoot themselves into trouble an awful lot).
Zach Hanson is very athletic for his size, and even as a true freshman, he’s already strong enough to hold his own down low. He has a nice touch around the rim, and — shockingly — he was a human highlight reel during warmups, throwing down one dunk after another. There’s been rumbles that he’s a candidate to redshirt, but given what I’ve seen during summer league and on Friday night, I honestly can’t see a scenario where that makes sense. He’s ready to contribute now, and as the season goes on, I think best case he could challenge Artino for minutes, and worst case, he’ll be another big body off the bench to bang with other Big East centers.
Darian Harris and Toby Hegner also saw action, but looked more the part of legitimate redshirt candidates — both showed enough raw skills to convince people they will be good players down the road, but both could use a year in the weight room to get bigger and stronger before tangling in the Big East.
The women’s scrimmage was second on the agenda, and it wasn’t nearly as close as the men, with the Blue team winning 32-14. The teams were not strictly divided among starters and bench, as Marissa Janning, Jordan Garrison and Sarah Nelson suited up for the White team and Alyssa Kamphaus, McKenzie Fujan and Alexis Akin-Oitko were on the Blue side.
A combined 21 points from McKenzie Fujan and Alexis Akin-Otiko were the majority of the offense for the victorious Blue side, who used a 14-5 run over a seven-minute stretch to turn a 9-5 lead into a 23-10 advantage.
The three-point shootout closed out the evening, with eight teams (each consisting of one men’s and one women’s player) fighting it out for the title. Jahenns Manigat and Marissa Janning netted 21 points in the first round to lead the way, while Ethan Wragge and Sarah Nelson combined for 18 to come in second. With the top four teams advancing, Doug McDermott and MC McGrory (16) and James Milliken and Lauren Works (14) also advanced.
The semifinals resulted in a tie, as McDermott/McGrory and Milliken/Works both ended with 18 points. Then, thanks to Fox’s “Big East Tipoff Party” conducting a live interview with the McDermott’s, there was a long delay between the semifinals and the finals. Luckily, James Milliken was able to entertain the crowd by showing off his dancing skills. A bizarre final round had Milliken/Works initially winning, but a scoring malfunction led to a shoot-off. McGrory and Works both missed their first attempts, but after McGrory missed her second, Works connected to (belatedly) give her and Milliken the crown.
In addition to the interview with the McDermotts, Fox Sports 1 also showed snippets of both the men’s and women’s scrimmages. The two hour program featured whip-around coverage of all ten teams; some of the highlights from other Big East campuses included Nikki Minaj performing at Villanova (which led head coach Jay Wright to seek refuge in the locker room for his interview), B.o.B. performing at Georgetown (while John Thompson III showed that Wright made the correct call, as his interview was drowned out by the music) and Lupe Fiasco performing at St. John’s. At Seton Hall, head coach Kevin Willard took on legendary competitive eater Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest, while at Providence, Nick Cannon DJ’d and there were rumors that Drake was in the building.
Marquette actually held their Midnight Madness event two weeks prior, and all of the clips FS1 showed on Friday were from that, though they did air a live interview with Buzz Williams. Xavier and Butler also held events, but theirs were much closer in style and substance to Creighton’s. The only team that appeared to show off their program before something less than a full crowd? DePaul, who held what appeared (based on what FS1 showed) to be a rather depressing evening of hoops in their on-campus arena, which was perhaps 40% full.
All in all, it was one heckuva debut for the “new” Big East, which was given what amounted to a two-hour infomercial for their league. The ten schools made the most of the opportunity, making a good first impression (even if a certain national broadcaster took the chance to mock Creighton’s inclusion in the league).
The exhibition slate kicks off for the men on Friday night against Northern State, while the women play their lone exhibition game Monday November 4 against Fort Hays State.